Companies like Netmeds, 1mg, Myra, PharmEasy, among others said the new notification is a move in the right direction and that it will pave the way for a level playing field with their offline counterparts.

“The draft data protection bill has allowed for data mirroring and taking data outside the country based on certain rules. This is likely to be what the IT ministry will hold for ecommerce policy as well,” said Subho Ray, president, Internet and Mobile Association of India.

Facebook has begun an exercise to hire a massive number of executives in public policy and government affairs roles across the world including in India as it battles multiple governments over privacy and data sharing